Cautiously optimistic

If you read this blog you know I have been struggling with my long runs. No, they have not been bad, yes, one of them has been great, but overall they did not feel as smooth as my speed and tempo runs. I know I am built for shorter distances, both mentally and physically. I can put up with a lot of hurt for a short amount of time. I get intimidated by long distances. I have strong muscles which are now popping out from my legs when I walk or run. I do not have the zero body fat like fast marathoners (I am not complaining here, I like what I have!).

Yet I am one who perseveres. I do believe that hard work makes runs easier, even the long runs. And today I've got a bit of a reward.

The run went like this: 9 miles steady @ MP, 1 mile easy, 4 miles with 5X3 min @ MP-10/25secs, 3 min easy; 3 miles @ MP +5secs. It was very humid this morning, and the initial plan was not to run this fast. But I felt good, and, even though I had a challenging week of training (some 800ms on Monday, a 12 miler with 6 miles @ MP-10 on Wednesday, 1 tempo with 3X10min @ HM/10K pace on Thursday, and an easy runs with hill sprints on Tuesday), the overall mileage has been lower, so I trusted that my body could handle the run. Was it easy? No. Was is hard at the end? Yes. Did it help that I had a small window of time to get the run done? Yes. But the point is, I ran hard long. My body does not feel trashed right now. I convinced myself that I could handle the run, when, at mile 2 of the first 9 miles, I remembered how I hit the wall several weeks ago when I started the run too fast, at a pace that was much slower than today's.

So I am feeling cautiously optimistic about my marathon. There is still work to be done, but I see things coming together even for this unnatural wanna be marathoner!

Grinding it!

I finished another 70+miles, and am excited for a few weeks of fewer miles. I am hoping that with the decrease in mileage I am going to be able to bring the quality up. My 2 key quality runs, the 20X400m and 2X10 min @ HM/10K went great. However, the rest of the miles were easy and my legs did not allow me to add some MP miles to the 15 moderately long mid week run.

I ran my first 22 miler this Saturday. We camped on the Cape and I ended up running on the Cape Canal on super flat terrain. It was a hot and humid morning even @ 6am when I got started (cooked my oatmeal and bought a Starbucks from a store over 20 miles away the night before - the only store around was a Dunkin Donuts and I can't drink their coffee). I ran strong for 15 miles (7:49) and then I melted. My Garmin kept losing its Satellite which gave me an excuse to turn it off around mile 15.5, which lowered the pressure for me a bit and allowed me to finish the run (I did slow down and took a few breaks for water but the pace was not terrible, maybe mid 8s?). Aerobically I felt fine but my legs and mostly calves hurt a ton. I think it is harder for me to run on 100% flat. Back at the camp the boys were waiting to go mini golfing - a little boy is now obsessed with it - and I spent another 2 hours on my feet walking the course. By the time that was done I was starving (a banana with peanut butter after 22 miles is not enough) and ready to jump into the freezing ocean. I was the only person swimming and by the time I got out my arms were numb. But, my legs felt super fresh this morning, nothing like after last weekend, and the easy 8 miles felt great. Post swim I amazed my husband with the amount of food I consumed: almost an entire cantaloupe, a salad with chicken, a yogurt and a fruit popsicle.

I am SO ready for next week! Less mileage, more pace miles, more intensity but not pushing below 5K pace anymore as there is too little gain for the amount of leg damage as far as the marathon is concerned. Less than 8 weeks 'till Baystate! Bring it!

I get knocked down....

...but I get up again, you never gonna keep me down!

That was the theme of my 20X400meters today!

I normally run easy on Tuesday because it is the hardest workday for me. However, since I killed my legs on Saturday, I needed 2 easy days to recover. Hence, track today!

I have not gone to the track in a long time. I have been running all my speed intervals on the road, using my Garmin, as our track gets very hot in the summer, and there is no shade. However, I knew that I needed the track for the 400ms.

I got there around 4:30pm, super happy for cooler temps. Some dudes were playing lacrosse in the infield, a couple of girls were running on the grass, a couple of mom were walking on the slow lanes. I felt ready to tackle the workout.

The plan was to run the first 10 @ 10K pace, then rest, and then run the last 10 @ 5K pace. Except if you know me, you know I am greedy and I never manage to run the pace I am supposed to. This was no exception.

First 10, 1 min RI in between
1:34 (6:10) - slowed myself down
1:34 - do not run faster
1:30 (6:00) - this is easy! Had to slow down to avoid getting hit by a lacrosse ball!
1:28 (5:55) - sub 6, I like this.
1:27 (5:54) - this is getting a little hard
1:29 (6:04) -you can't slow down now! Had to slow down to avoid getting hit my a lacrosse ball!
1:30 - this is getting harder
1:26 - almost done
1:27 - almost done
1:28 - DONE

I decided to jog 400 easy for recovery between sets. As I strolled around, I suddenly felt a sharp pain and got knocked down to the ground. Mind you, I am not a little person. I have muscles, I am strong, I am fairly tall. The darn lacrosse ball got me in my pelvis. I honestly thought I broke my pelvis, this is how sharp the pain was. Luckily, I am fine, and only have a massive bruise over there (and no, you will no see it!). I seriously think those guys did this on purpose. Either that, or getting almost hit 2 times and hit once makes for some weird coincidences!

Pumped with extra adrenaline, I commenced my second set:
1:30
1:27
1:26
1:24
1:25
1:18 (5:25)
1:25
1:25
1:25
1:16 (5:20)

V happy with this run. V pleased with my legs. They are back!

Back home Chris was pissed about the lacrosse guys, and was about to go over there, which made me smile bc he is the nicest, least aggressive person I know. But he was pissed. I am amazed that I was so civil with them (even after they called me ma'am!). I guess I was too concerned with whether I would be able to complete my workout.

So the morale of the story! The track is a dangerous place for me (brings out my addiction to speed) and for my pelvis!

Good things!

This is how I felt after my 20 miler with Katie!
When I jumped for the camera, which was the day after, well, I felt like my body was going to break into smithereens!
I guess running 20 miles @ 7:45 with last mile @ 7:22 would do that to you, particularly when you are in the middle of several 70+ miles!

Feeling much better right now after 8 miles of 9+min/miles on trails.

My reward for the 20 miler? Baking and decorating this cake for Petru's party! He drew a picture and I had to copy it! There is a road, going over a bridge, and a railroad crossing and a train, and the gates are down so the train can go safely! It was a hit with the kids:)


And since I had my "Betty" on, I made this cupcakes for Petru's class. He is obsessed with clocks these days! And that's my baking for the year! Nothing else until next year on the baking front from me! There will be lots of running, though, including, hopefully more fast long runs with Katie!

Focusing on the positive

I've just tallied my miles for July: 282! Wow! A record for me.

So I have noticed a pattern with my runs: good speed, OK easy, good hills/progression, awesome progression/sub MP, rough long, rough easy and back again! Hm, maybe I should stick to short distances...

Maybe not.

I think I just need to be more patient and less greedy when it comes to my run. Patient in the long runs - understanding that I have not run long in about one year, that I need to start slow (darn ego!), that I am still at the beginning of my training cycle. Less greed during speed/tempo/hills - understanding, for ex., that I don't need to run 10+ secs under MP just because I can and because it feels good. So I'll keep trying.

Next week I will do my first 20 miler! I will be running it with Katie on the marathon course. We will be running 8:20s and I might pick it up to MP for the last 30 minutes if I feel good (or maybe Katie will!). My goal is to get a solid long run in, the first 20+ out of 6! I am also super excited to run with Katie. I like Katie. I admire Katie. She is so nice and tough and strong and she never complains. I like that.

My legs feel good right now. I though I completely trashed them after Saturday's long run, but they recovered! I am grateful that my body can handle as much hard work; I know it is still adjusting to the higher mileage, which will toughen me up for the marathon. I am so happy to be able to take off and run for 90min to 3hours almost every day. I am enjoying the process and I know that if I focus on it rather than only on a specific time goal, I will be OK.

Happy training, that's what's all about:)

Marathon week 5, some good, some to be learned from

This week will end with the most mileage I have ever run: 72 miles!

The week started with a 12 mile progression with last 6 at a little below MP. I felt awesome. Tuesday I did 10 easy without the Garmin, and felt good, but tired. I work from 7 to 3 on Tuesday, no breaks, so I do my runs in the hotness of the afternoon. As someone said to me recently, a hot run is my reward after a crazy busy non stop kind of day. Ha!

Wednesday I had a tough hill workout, 10 miles with some 5X3 min @ 5K effort on hills. Did I mention I hate hill workouts? I do about 3 miles of hills on all my easy runs, but sprinting up them for minutes is not my favorite thing. I did not carefully plan and ended up with a 400m hill, too steep, and had to add a bit of flat and slight incline after (each interval ended up being .4 miles). The pace was slow, but my legs felt the workout.

On Thursday I had 14 miles with 8 @ MP, but somehow my legs surprised me and I ended up going way below MP, and feeling great. The cool temps helped a lot, I ran @ 6am.

Friday I was exhausted, though, and ended up taking a 2 hour nap after work, and going to bed with no problem thereafter. No running, but I did some easy spinning on my bike for about 60 minutes.

All good things have to end, though.... Today's 18 miler sucked. I made the mistake of making a superfast playlist, and was unable to slow myself down during the fist miles of the run. I ran the first 11 miles @ 7:40 average, and then my legs rebelled. The suffer-fest started and I managed to complete 17 miles of the 18, allowing myself to walk the last mile sipping a can of diet pepsi. I am OK with this. The last 6 miles ended up slower, with 2 of them @ 8:10 and 8:07, but I recovered with a 7:31 as a last mile. I have been compressing my legs and will go for a swim later, in hopes of getting rid of the lactic acid. Eight easy miles tomorrow, and then another big week! I think I learned my lesson and will start the run with some slooow music, ha!

This week confirmed how much more I enjoy running mid distance fast paced, and how tough longer distance runs are for me. Hopefully this will change by the end of this training cycle, and long runs and I will become friends. For now, I am grateful for these legs.....they are doing great work for me!

Oh, and there was some biking (2 hours) and swimming (3 miles) going on. Swimming and sleeping are my 2 best recovery strategies! So far so good!

And if you want a story of inspiration, head to Mary Iron Matron and read her Lake Placid Report! Even if you are not a tri person, I guarantee you will NOT be disappointed!

Marathon training week 4 and stuff!

This was a great week of running. I rationally know that the first few weeks of marathon training are hard, and soon enough I am going to feel stronger, but nonetheless, it is hard to "feel" like that will happen. This week I turned a corner, I think.

I played around with my week some. I mostly had easy runs on the plan, as I increased mileage (65 this week) and there was some recovery in there post my race. But since it was hot, I could not run hard at the race, so I did not feel sore or tired after. Monday I did 10 miles with some hill sprints. Those are hard for me, but I stick with them because I believe they help. Tuesday I ran very slow without a Garmin, after work, in 90+ degree and who knows how much humidity. I had a bunch of podcasts downloaded and slogged along. Wednesday I had 10 miles easy with 12X30 secs fast, which I turned into a moderate paced run with some fast intervals. I felt great. Thursday I had 12 easy, and ran them a bit faster than I wanted bc of lack of time, but nothing sub 8. Today I had 13 miles with 12X 60 sec @ MP. The temps were cool at 6am, and it started raining when I was 3 miles in. Loved it. I ran sub MP for 10 miles feeling great, and then did the 60 sec intervals; I tried to stay @ MP with them, but it was so hard bc they were so short and my legs wanted to move faster. I will have another shot at this in a couple of weeks. I understand the importance of keeping the pace MP not 5K (oops!) for these intervals, but it did not happen for me today. Ten miles easy tomorrow with some hill sprints and week 4 is done. I feel giddy. Arch pain is completely gone, along with all other weird pains I had for a while there. Hurray! Oh, and this was the first long run in this marathon cycle when I came home and was actually able to talk:)

I swam again every single day this week. I love my H2O audio interval 4G which allows me to listen to music while swimming (and block out the noise of all the kids at the town beach) - review coming soon (Thank You H2O audio). Swimming with music is so much fun. Just like with running, I swim faster and better with a good playlist. Only 1 hour biking, boo, but it has been so hot and swimming was much more appealing this week.
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In other news, we, like most of the country (except the lucky Portland folks) have been dealing with crazy heat. 101 degrees yesterday, WTF? We do not have AC for environmental reasons, and I was very close to giving in and getting a unit installed this past week. Petru hates the fan and ends up in our bed, on top of me while I am about to jump out of my skin. Chris has been smart and sleeping downstairs, though last night I sent Petru there for some daddy bonding and managed to get some glorious sleep. Looking forward to cooler temps tomorrow. I am in the "give me snow and cool temps" club, but am thinking all this training in high temps is going to make me feel like an animal come the cool October days! Lets hope so!

Good luck to everyone racing Lake Placid! Kill it Mary and Emily! So excited for some vicarious IMLP racing!